The X-37B has been conducting tests on space domain awareness technologies, enhancing the Space Force's comprehension of space as a contested environment. This mission showcased aerobraking maneuvers, which have potential applications for military satellites. Gen. Stephen Whiting emphasized the need for improved maneuverability in space, especially due to emerging threats from nations like China. He pointed out the strategic advantage that sustained maneuvers could provide in both surveillance and combat operations within the increasingly complex space domain.
The X-37 is a test and experimentation platform, but that aerobraking maneuver allowed it to bridge multiple orbital regimes, and we think this is exactly the kind of maneuverability we'd like to see in future systems, which will unlock a whole new series of operational concepts.
An irony of the space domain is that everything in our AOR is in motion, but rarely do we use maneuver as a way to gain positional advantage.
We believe at US Space Command it is vital, given the threats we now see in novel orbits that are hard for us to get to, ... we need some kind of sustained space maneuver.
Improvements in maneuverability would have benefits in surveilling an adversary's satellites, as well as in defensive and offensive combat operations in orbit.
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